“At the Zero-Point of Freedom. Before the Law”, with Christopher Menke

How does freedom begin? How do we become free? The second book of Moses, which its Greek translators called “Exodus”, provides an answer to this question that presents a concept of freedom of abysmal depth and dizzying dialectics.

This concept of freedom unites two traits – which are opposed to each other. The first trait says that becoming free means moving out of the ethical order and breaking with its law (Gesetz). We do this by obeying the command (Gebot): Only the command liberates. The second trait follows from the insight that this liberation suffers the fate of reversal: the command (which liberates us) turns back into the law (which subjugates us). Liberation must thus go back before the command with which it began. It must begin prior to its beginning; it must begin by, and as, an experience.

Please note: Christoph Menke will also hold a workshop on Tuesday, 7 October, in HQ 359, at 12 noon: https://german.yale.edu/event/institution-ritual-and-critique-workshop-christoph-menke. Please RSVP for the workshop to suzanne.al-labban@yale.edu and the advanced reading will be emailed to you.

Christoph Menke is professor emeritus of Practical Philosophy at Goethe Universität Frankfurt am Main. After professorships at the New School for Social Research, New York and the University of Potsdam he taught there from 2009-2025.

Selected book publications: The Sovereignty of Art. Aesthetic Negativity after Adorno and Derrida (1988, engl. 1998); Tragödie im Sittlichen (1996); Reflections of Equality (2000, engl. 2006); Tragic Play (2005, engl. 2009); Force. A Fundamental Concept of Aesthetic Anthropology (2008, engl. 2012); Law and Violence (2011, engl. 2018); Die Kraft der Kunst (2013); Critique of Rights (2015, engl. 2020); Autonomie und Befreiung (2018); Theorie der Befreiung (2022).